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Step PN Junction-Based Silicon Microring Modulator for High-Speed Application

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Abstract

The prerequisite for a high-performance optical modulator is to support high data rate operation, which depends on the modulator’s index variation. A silicon microring modulator with a step based PN junction and curved coupler is designed and analysed. The step junction produces several PN junctions that would improve the effective index change for modulation. Ring modulators are sensitive to fabrication variations, and this is minimised with the help of a curved coupler. System-level link simulation analysis is performed on the proposed ring modulator design of 10 μ m radius. A 3.76 dB extinction ratio (ER) and 1.57 × 10− 12 bit error rate (BER) are achieved at a modulation efficiency of 43.4 pm/V in the proposed device when operated at a data rate of 80 Gbps. This ensures that the proposed device is compatible for high speed data centre applications. The proposed design also supports PAM4 modulation with an ER of 5.5 dB with a BER of 1.37 × 10− 3 at 100 Gbps.

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Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at present but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was performed on Lumerical software provided by Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai. The authors are grateful to the institution.

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No funding was received for conducting this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronics Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, 600127, India

    Jesuwanth Sugesh R. G., Sivasubramanian A. & V. R. Balaji

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  1. Jesuwanth Sugesh R. G.
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  2. Sivasubramanian A.
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  3. V. R. Balaji
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Contributions

The design proposal, simulation analysis and manuscript preparation are performed by Jesuwanth Sugesh R G guided by Sivasubramanian A. The simulation analysis was verified by Balaji V R.

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Correspondence to Sivasubramanian A..

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R. G., J.S., A., S. & Balaji, V.R. Step PN Junction-Based Silicon Microring Modulator for High-Speed Application. Silicon 14, 10651–10660 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-022-01735-2

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